


The Consequences of Caffeine Addictions

by HollowIsTheWorld



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Human, M/M, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-28
Updated: 2014-09-28
Packaged: 2018-02-19 03:46:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2373341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HollowIsTheWorld/pseuds/HollowIsTheWorld
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Samandriel's morning coffee is accidentally picked up by someone else he's willing to make some pretty stupid decisions to make sure he gets it back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Consequences of Caffeine Addictions

Samandriel had never been a morning person. He dragged himself out of bed with painstaking effort every morning, showered in an unconscious daze, and it was a good thing he never wore anything but jeans and t-shirts with sneakers because otherwise he’d have been a walking fashion disaster.

Samandriel shared an apartment with his brother, who was a morning person, and who usually tried for a friendly greeting, and was usually met with a growl. Samandriel would then shuffle out the door to the coffee shop around the corner and order the strongest thing on the menu. He always tipped well, knowing he’d feel bad in a few hours if he didn’t,  take his coffee, and head for work, where he might be coherent by the time customers started to show up.

This system was shaken up on a Thursday morning. Samandriel entered the coffee shop as usual, barely paying any attention to the chalkboard with the favorites and the specials written in flowery letters. The woman behind the counter took his order and wrote his name on the cup. Samandriel came in so often that she didn’t even have to ask him to repeat it or spell it out for her. Then Samandriel shuffled to the other end of the counter and waited, standing uncomfortably near the sugar packets. If he sat down in one of the cafe’s white chairs, he might fall asleep and never get up again.

Everything went exactly the way it was supposed to, right up until Samandriel heard his name called, picked up a coffee, took a slow sip, and froze. That was not what he had ordered.

Samandriel looked down at the styrofoam cup he was holding to see the name Benny printed on the side in the barista’s surprisingly neat handwriting. His head shot up with more speed and precision than he would have thought possible so early. He was just in time to see a taller, broader man exit the building, coffee in hand. A part of Samandriel’s brain that hadn’t  been fully online a minute ago recognized him as having grabbed a coffee at the same time Samandriel had. That was Benny. Had to be.

Moving as quickly as he could without sloshing the scalding hot coffee out of the cup and all over himself, Samandriel took off after him.

The sidewalks weren’t crowded yet and Benny hadn’t gotten much of a head start, but luck wasn’t on Samandriel’s side all the same. Benny was already on the other side of the street and the light had just turned.

Samandriel had not had his coffee yet. His brain was so many degrees of offline it was a miracle he was still able to talk. And his caffeine was walking away.

So, naturally, he darted across the street anyway.

Car horns blared, brakes squealed, and there were more than a few rude names called out of windows.

Samandriel barely noticed.

Benny did though, and turned around to see what the hell all the fuss was about. What he saw was a condensed package of early morning aggression and lack of self-preservation hurtling towards him. He held still long enough for Samandriel to catch up and march up to him. They made eye contact, and Samandriel’s were angry and bloodshot. Benny took an involuntary step backwards.

“That’s my coffee,” Samandriel spat out.

Benny looked down at the cup he was holding, and, sure enough, it wasn’t his name he saw printed there. “Huh. Thought it tasted weird.”

Samandriel shoved Benny’s coffee at him and snatched back his own. It didn’t appease him.

“You already drank half of it!”

“Well, I didn’t know it wasn’t mine, did I?”

Samandriel shook a little.

“Alright, easy,” Benny told him, wary now. “I’ll buy you a new one if it’s that big of a deal.”

“Yes. You will.”

They started heading back to the coffee shop.

“Sheesh,” Benny said, looking at Samandriel as they waited for the light. “You are really intense about your coffee.”

Samandriel glared at him.

“Just so you know, I’m only buying you a new one because I don’t think I could handle the embarrassment of having ‘murdered over a cup of coffee’ being part of my obituary.”

“I can live with that,” Samandriel said, watching Benny like he might make a run for it.

Once back inside, Samandriel reeled off his order with ease gained from ordering the same thing six days a week for months on end. Benny looked at him in horror. “I drank half a cup of that?”

Samandriel rolled his eyes, and it was the angriest eye roll Benny had ever seen.

When they left, Benny not only gave Samandriel his new cup of coffee and the unfinished previous cup, but also the one Benny had initially ordered, stating that he was pretty sure he’d had enough caffeine to last him a week.

Samandriel finally stopped being angry around lunchtime.

Not having been properly aware at the time of the incident, Samandriel didn’t think much more about it until the following Monday morning. He was back at the coffee shop, waiting for his drink to be done, when somebody spoke to him.

“Samandriel, right?”

Samandriel blinked a few times, registering the sounds and processing how he was supposed to respond. He turned his head towards the voice. “...Benny?”

Benny smiled, which was a disgusting sight so early in the morning.  “I get your name right?”

Slowly, Samandriel nodded. “Yeah.”

“You aren’t a morning person, are you?”

Samandriel stared at him.

Benny chuckled. “I’m startin’ to see why you chased me down to get your coffee back.”

Samandriel’s coffee appeared and he took a sip of it. “I need my caffeine,” he said dumbly.

“I noticed.”

Samandriel took another drink, longer this time, and watched as Benny picked up his own coffee. “I thought you didn’t need any?”

Benny looked at him, confused.

He pointed to Benny’s cup. “You said you’d had enough caffeine for a week.”

Benny looked bewildered for another second before his face cleared and he laughed. “I did say that, didn’t I? Guess I underestimated how much I actually need.”

Samandriel was still staring at him.

“What’s up with you?”

“How are you so awake?”

Benny laughed again. Samandriel wanted to dump hot coffee on him as punishment for daring to be so chipper when Samandriel wanted to collapse, and he very well might have had it not been such an obvious waste.

“It’s not that early.”

“It’s seven-thirty.”

“Yeah, not that early.”

Samandriel shook his head, trying to clear it. He wasn’t used to having conversations before he was properly awake.

“Maybe you should look into getting a job with different hours,” Benny suggested. “Later hours.”

“I own a shop,” Samandriel told him even as he tried to work out if that was the correct response. “I have to be open when customers want to shop.”

“Yeah? What kind of shop?”

Samandriel took a long gulp of coffee. Why hadn’t he left yet? Why was he still talking to this guy? “Art and antiques.” He rubbed his eyes. “What do you do?” That was the polite thing to ask now, wasn’t it?

“Chef.” He glanced at his watch. “And I should probably get going or I’ll be late for the breakfast rush and the boss’ll have my head.”

Samandriel waved goodbye, still not entirely certain as to what had just happened. He drank his coffee, and when Hael, his morning employee, arrived she told him that he seemed to be in a better mood than usual.

He was not disappointed when he didn’t see Benny in the coffee shop the next day. Nor was he excited when he did see him the day after that. It took another week for him to start to admit, to himself at least, that he enjoyed the company in the mornings. Even if it meant talking to someone before his brain started working.

“Morning’,” Benny greeted two Saturdays later, disturbingly cheerful, as always. They were standing in line, Samandriel just about to go up to the cash register. Benny had just ordered his own coffee and was standing to the side.

“Morning,” Samandriel replied, yawning. Talking was really hard this early. He was considering increasing the tip he left, since everyone who worked in the cafe seemed to be so good at it.

“I still can’t believe you get that thing every day,” Benny said after Samandriel finished ordering.

“Every day but Sunday.”

“That’s a lot of caffeine, kid.”

Samandriel scowled. “I’m not a kid.”

Benny grinned. “Sorry. Old habit I never quite kicked. Why don’t you just get a coffee maker for your shop? It’d save you some money.”

“I have one. I’m not awake enough to use it if I haven’t already had some.”

Benny looked concerned. “How much coffee do you have a day?”

Both their names were called and an employee handed them their cups. Samandriel made sure to check the name on his before he took a drink. He shrugged and held up the cup. “This, plus two, maybe three more cups at work. Depends on the day. Mondays and Saturdays are the hardest. My record’s five cups.”

“That’s terrifying. That can’t be healthy.”

“You sound like my brother.”

“Smart guy. I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Samandriel yawned wide enough to make his jaw pop and started walking.

Benny fell in step beside him. “Mind if I walk with you?”

He sounded nervous. Samandriel’s mouth went dry and his heart stammered a little. He’d started entertaining the thought that Benny might be interested in him a few days ago, but always brushed it aside. But maybe he was. That’d be exciting. Nobody had flirted with Samandriel in months, and he’d certainly never caught anyone’s eye by being a caffeine deprived zombie before.

He tried for a nonchalant shrug while simultaneously trying to take a drink and he almost wound up with hot coffee all down his shirt.

He jumped back a little, trying to get the cup away from himself without dropping it. He managed to avoid getting it all over his clothes, but the liquid splashed out of the cup and onto his hand. Samandriel hissed in pain.

Benny grabbed his coffee out of his hand almost immediately, and some instinctual part of Samandriel’s brain panicked for a moment, thinking Benny was trying to steal it.

“Christ, you okay?” Benny asked. He set both their coffees on the ground - which Samandriel thought was a dangerous place for them - and took Samandriel’s hand.

Samandriel felt his face heating up. “Fine. I only spilled a little.”

Benny reached into one of his jacket pockets. “Hang on, I’ve got some napkins.” Without being asked, he started drying off Samandriel’s hand and his coffee-stained shirt sleeve.

Samandriel tried to get his embarrassment under control. “You always carry napkins in your pocket?”

“Better safe than sorry.”

“Aren’t you going to be late?” Samandriel asked as Benny finished and started looking around for a trash can.

Benny smiled sheepishly. “Today’s my day off. I just didn’t want to miss you.”

Yep, definitely interested. Samandriel picked up his coffee and burned his tongue when he took too large of a drink. He was really hoping he had enough brain power to not screw this up. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. Is that… okay?”

Samandriel smiled. He could feel his blush getting out of control; he was probably as red as a stop sign by now.

“I don’t mind.”

Benny’s smiled looked relieved. “What time does your shop close?”

“Today? Three.”

“Want to go to dinner with me?”

Samandriel gulped and focused on trying to slow his heart rate. “I’m in the mood for cheeseburgers.” The words spilled out a little too quickly, exposing his nervousness.

Benny’s smile widened into a grin. “I think I can handle that.”

 


End file.
